The Putnam County School Board approved the purchase of three metal detectors Thursday night for an estimated $54,600.
Deputy Director Tim Martin said metal detectors have been something the school system has looked at for some time, but believed they were not feasible due to how long it might take to get kids into schools. Martin said when incidents happen, the school system receives calls from community members about metal detectors. Martin said the metal detectors are portable and would be used on a trial basis.
“We can move them to different schools and see how feasible they are at a small school, we can see how feasible they are at a large school, and see if we are going to be able to get kids into a building in a timely manner,” Martin said.
The board unanimously passed the purchase, but not after several board members expressed being torn on the decision. School Board Chairman Lynn McHenry said he had always thought metal detectors would give students a sense of fear.
“I don’t want to make it as if our kids feel like they are being scrutinized or in some kind of prison lineup, you know, there’s an amount that goes to that,” McHenry said. “I understand that we have to protect our children, but we understand that with that comes a certain amount of understanding that we can’t protect them from everything either.”
Cookeville High School Resource Officer Bill Harris said that students would likely appreciate the metal detectors.
“I think you would be pleasantly surprised that most of your students are looking to have this and think that it would be a good addition,” Harris said. “I don’t know if most of you all know, but we do drills periodically, and the participation that we get from these kids in the drills is amazing because they are all on board with safety.”
Martin said it is still unknown where the metal detectors would be tested first, but he did say that the high schools will be a focal point. Martin said another piece the school system will have to solve is who will operate the metal detectors.
“One of the big things that we want to find out is how much staff do we need to operate these things,” Martin said. “It does us no good to put a metal detector out there if somebody is not watching it. So we got to know what’s it going to take. Do I need two people per lane, do I need three people per lane, you know, what’s it going to take to make this operate.”
Martin said the plan, as of now, is to have the emergency response team at each school to operate them. Martin said a big factor in whether metal detectors will become a permanent, is having enough staff to operate the metal detectors at each school.
Martin said the sensitivity of the metal detectors can be adjusted so that they would not alarm to items such as car keys. Martin said it would take a month for the metal detectors to arrive, and the plan is to test them out for the rest of the school year.
In other business, the board approved several change orders on the Park View project. It was announced that the Avery Trace softball field is complete.
